Organic Dragon Well Green Tea (Long Jing)

Thanks, Nicole-Martin for this 2013 pick dragon well. I decided to pick anther dragonwell this morning to a weekend of it.

I followed the directions for a 3 minute steep at 176F. I was worried about the long steep time, but it turned out surprisingly not sea-weedy. This is fresh, grassy, and buttery. There is a depth to this dragonwell that is different from the grape notes I got out of yesterday’s Verdant. The package says this one has ‘subtle liquorice root complexity’, but that doesn’t quite describe the depth I’m getting either. I’m having trouble attaching a description to that note, but the closest I get is plum?The aftertaste however is a juicy burst of apricot and is very bright as aftertasts go. I’m tempted to pull out the Verdant again and do a side-by-side comparison.

This is the 2009 pick. Sweet, light and delicious. I am not a Dragon Well fan, but this stuff is pretty darn good.

Wow. Will post in more detail shortly. Must focus on drinking more of this tea for now :-)

Mmm. First, this tea smells amazingly fresh as a dry tea. It’s also stunning to look at: flat, uniform, perfect. The leaves remind me of pressed flowers that someone lovingly placed between the pages of a book. These leaves were delicately handled.

160/2.5 min The tea is the palest yellow color I’ve seen yet. It’s so pretty, one of the most aesthetically pleasing experiences I’ve yet encountered with a tea. The smell is slightly nutty, but fresh. It’s deep and rich, surprising for what I was expecting to be light and airy. I can taste a hint of grassiness and wish that it were a bit more pronounced. It’s barely there. This is a wonderful cup of tea and I’ll see how many infusions I can get out of it. I’m hoping for quite a few.

Very pleasing. Nice sweet notes, full-bodied green tea flavor, very smooth, excellent mouth-feel. All around good tea!

tasted 1 time, but need to wait for a special tea pot I bought for this tea :)

I can’t get enough of this tea and especially love playing with the weight vs. water ratio and timing.

I’m on my second brewing of these particular leaves. This is a great everyday tea; the first brew is crisp, and becomes more and more mellow as time goes on.

The best standard grade Long Jing i have had all year.
Leaves are more broken in the pack as compared to the picture, but i guess thats just aesthetics of the site, you know a standard long jing aint gonna look all perfect like the pics.
That being said this really is a truly wonderful dragowell, i have tasted strong coconut notes which i have not had in other LJs.

If you are looking for a standard grade i cannot rate this highly enough, seems 2010 is a great year for LJ

1st infusion:

Nutty and deeply flavoured. In fact a bit too nutty/rich for my tastes (I prefer a very fresh tasting green tea). The tea had a lovely honey-sweet scent and the dry leaves smelled just like the earth after summer rain. The smell of the infused leaves was disappointingly “mushroomy” though.

I will make the next infusion cooler (70 deg.) and brew for longer.